A ribbon cable is a cable with many conducting wires running parallel to one another in a single strip of material. The cable resembles a ribbon, typically formed wide and flat. Ribbon cables are often used inside computers and other electronic devices with internal peripherals (e.g., servers, etc.). Some examples of standard ribbon cables include Parallel ATA cables, high-speed ULTRA-ATA cables, and flexible flat cables (FFC).
In general, ribbon cables are used because they provide a single termination for all of the cables, sometimes known as an insulation-displacement connector (IDC). An IDC includes a set of sharp contacts so that when an IDC is forced onto the ribbon cable, all of the conductors are terminated in one process. In some forms, such as FFC, a cable consists of a flexible, flat plastic film base with multiple conductors bonded to a surface of the base. The base may be reinforce with one or more stiffeners to facilitate insertion and/or connections (e.g., zero insertion force (ZIF) and/or low insertion force (LIF) connections). For example, some military specifications (e.g., MIL-DTL-49055) discuss ribbon cable and identify several details of standard ribbon cables.
Ribbon cables may incidentally and/or accidentally function as antennas. In essence, the ribbon cables broadcast random noise across several bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some applications, the use of ribbon cables is restricted by limitations on use and/or by requiring additional shielding (e.g., copper-braiding). Further, although the ribbon cable provides an easy way to terminate the conductors in a single step, the shape of the ribbon may add constraints on routing and geometry of the cable.